Ivy Day Thoughts

If you were to ask an American to name a corrupt country, he would most likely pick one from what we used to call the third world. To a great degree, this is how we now define the term “third world”. It simply means corrupt. First world countries have transparency and the rule of law, while third world countries are opaque, and the rules are not always clear to the citizens of those countries. These days it is not unusual to hear Russia or China called third world, for example.

This is one of those legacy ideas from the 20th century that evolved with the times rather than following the Cold War into the history books. As a result, our rulers tend not to think much about the corruption in American society. It is just assumed, as it was in the Cold War, that Western countries are largely free of corruption, mostly due to the honesty of Americans, while the rest of the world is riddled with corruption. It is a form of the old good guy – bad guy view of the world.

The thing is you can quite easily make the case that America is one of the most corrupt countries in the world now. Today is election day and most Americans assume the vote counts will be corrupted with fake votes generated by the people who support things like mail in voting, drop boxes and ballot harvesting. In popular government, voting is the key to its integrity, but in the world’s greatest democracy, most people assume the vote is as corrupt as anything that happens in the third world.

The countries that holds elections, even the ones we still call third world, require voters to cast their vote in person and show that they are a citizen. The burden of proof is on the voter to show they are entitled to vote. In America, this basic safeguard has been corrupted through many schemes like mail-in voting, drop boxes and bans on voters showing their government identification. Anyone who questions the integrity of the vote must prove their case all the way to the Supreme Court.

Of course, the reason for that is the court system is now stuffed with judges who make up the rules based on their ideological whims. A judge in Virginia tried to stop the state government from purging foreigners from the voter rolls. The state had to appeal all the way to the Supreme Court. It was not a unanimous decision in their favor, because the three progressive fanatics sided with the foreigners. Courtrooms are now lotteries due to ideology, which is the definition of corruption.

It is fair to say that two pillars of “good government” in the liberal sense of the concept are free and fair elections and the rule of law. In present day America, we have thoroughly corrupt elections, and the rule of law exists only for the rich and those lucky enough to get a judge who is not driven mad with ideology. If what we see in present day America was happening in a South American country, the media reports would make corruption a center piece of their coverage.

That brings up a third part of the good government concept, a free press. The media in America is entirely controlled by the ruling class. Access journalism has been the norm for decades now. On top of that the media is staffed by people who are animated by ideological fervor. The result is a mass media that is so thoroughly dishonest it would have made the Bolsheviks wince. If you want to know what is not happening in the world, trust American media.

It is not that they are mere propagandists. The American media actively conspires with shadowy figures to deceive the public. The last decade should probably be called the age of media hoaxes. Many of them are so outlandish that it suggests we are living in a computer simulation run by drug takers. The mass media spent years covering a claim that Vladimir Putin used mind control to elect Trump in 2016. If Trump wins today, it will be more years of this insane conspiracy theory.

It is not just soft corruption, the stuff driven by ideological fervor, that has become normalized in America. Good old-fashioned bribery is the norm now. Look at the elected leaders of the two parties and what you see is they entered politics penniless and will exit as multi-millionaires. The reason for this is the elected officials who play ball get insider access to sure thing investments. The reason they are a sure thing is those same elected officials make sure of it.

In fact, it is fair to say that the American economy as a whole is as corrupt as the post-Soviet Russian economy controlled by oligarchs. Silicon Valley has been abusing the basic rights of American for years, with the full support of the state. The banking industry is nothing more than an industrial scale skimming operation. We used to put gangsters in jail for doing this with casinos. Now the gangsters have the state try to put you in jail if you question the ethics of our economic model.

It is hard to find anything in America that is on the level. Even benign stuff like social science data is corrupt. The government had to admit this year that they had been faking employment numbers. The FBI finally confessed that they had been faking crime figures, even the murder stats. Homicide numbers used to be the gold standard of crime data because it was assumed you could not fake them. Turns out in highly corrupt societies, you can fake anything.

After the Soviet Union collapsed, it was assumed it would take a few generations for the culture of distrust to subside. It did not take quite that long, but thirty years on and social trust remains low in modern Russia. It is rising quickly, but people still remember when you could not trust anything from the state or its supporters. Trust is one of those things that is easily squandered, but difficult to establish. Russia may never be a high trust society due its history.

This may be the fate of America. The average American, especially older Americans, still trust the system, even if they no longer trust the people running it. At some point, practical necessity forces people to stop thinking this way. You see this in the younger generations who are comfortable in a scamocracy. Add in demographic replacement and the ingredients are all in place for America to descend into the depths of kleptocracy and corruption associated with low-trust societies.

This is not to say we have decades more of this until the break. Historical analogies are not about stuffing the present into our model of the past. The point is to use a model of the past to gain insights into the present. In this case, the end was near for the Soviets when no one, not even government officials believed the official lies. By the 1970’s cynicism was the defining feature of the culture. The state lied, the people pretended to believe the lie and the state pretended the lie worked.

We may be reaching such a point. Today’s election is about a man who has been vilified, physically attacked and prosecuted by the state and their media agents for close to a decade. It is not about Harris. She is simply the face of a regime that people increasingly find odious and corrupt. Trump may be our Boris Yeltsin, a flawed but essential figure to facilitate the transition from the low-trust ideological regime of the past into something human and honest.


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Vizzini
Member
2 hours ago

If you were to ask an American to name a corrupt country, he would most likely pick one from what we used to call the third world. 

I haven’t read any farther in the post than this, yet, but the first country that comes to mind for me is the US.

Götterdamn-it-all
Götterdamn-it-all
Reply to  Vizzini
2 hours ago

If you look at corruption in terms of dark money exchanged between various political and financial players, there simply are no real competitors to America. The situation in Ukraine is just one (glaring) example of the money laundering schemes being played out in D.C. Russian oligarchs are children compared to the monsters we have over here.

Marko
Marko
Reply to  Vizzini
1 hour ago

Z is being pugilistic today. As much as I loath the regime, we are not the most corrupt country in the world. We are transitioning to Brazilian or Mexican levels of corruption, which seems real bad since we were probably on Netherlands level a couple generations ago. I’d much rather live here than about 75% of other countries, including China or the UK. And we still have a free press…unlike China, Western leadership understands that you don’t need to censor ALL information, just astroturf as much as possible. People will tend to believe the person on TV, and the rest… Read more »

Vizzini
Member
Reply to  Marko
1 hour ago

 And we still have a free press

LOL

Cruciform
Cruciform
Reply to  Vizzini
23 minutes ago

Free press …. now that IS a hootfest in one line.

Free to do what, exactly?

Marko
Marko
Reply to  Marko
22 minutes ago

I can read Z and Unz and freaking Candace Owens without a VPN. I don’t need a national ID to access the internet and I don’t get 404’d when try and Google “Ted Kaczynski manifesto”. The press is free, bro.

pyrrhus
pyrrhus
Reply to  Vizzini
1 hour ago

The US and Ukraine are a match…child trafficking, check, organ trafficking, check, wholesale theft by officials, check, lapdog media, check, no rule of law, check…..

Cruciform
Cruciform
Reply to  pyrrhus
23 minutes ago

And perhaps soon, elections cancelled.

Xman
Xman
2 hours ago

“To a great degree, this is how we now define the term “third world”. It simply means corrupt.”

-To me “Third World” always meant “nonwhite.” By that standard America is certainly becoming a Third World nation…

Götterdamn-it-all
Götterdamn-it-all
Reply to  Xman
2 hours ago

Here’s a little rhyme to help remind you of that fact: “Try as they might, juice are not white.”

Maxda
Maxda
Reply to  Xman
1 hour ago

“Non-white” and “corrupt” are synonyms.

Xman
Xman
Reply to  Maxda
47 minutes ago

Generally, but there are exceptions. Japan and Singapore, for instance. But they never would have been considered Third World nations anyway. Third World to me was always the “Global South” populated my Negroes, Negritoes, Arabs, Subcontinentals, and mestizos, generally not Asians, although of course China and Vietnam had a fair share of corruption.

Last edited 44 minutes ago by Xman
Maxda
Maxda
Reply to  Xman
2 minutes ago

The Orientals can be corrupt, but also tend to shoot those exposed as corrupt.

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
1 hour ago

The country’s full transition to a South America-style country will come with the passing of the Boomers – and GenX. They are both the last generations to remember the old America, and they will cling to that memory.

Obviously, the Boomers are a much larger generation so once they go, the process will start in earnest, but the Xers will keep the flame going until they pass. Then, the US will be full South America and no one will have ever known anything different.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
1 hour ago

It’s been a long time since I’ve spent any time there, but it seemed like they practiced a more honest and egalitarian style of corruption in Mexico. Most everything was for sale, to anyone. Whereas the AINO flavor of corruption requires both the right connections and the right ideology, it’s not just about straight cash money. Indeed, in AINO, unlike in Mexico, you’d likely be jailed for offering a bribe, if you hadn’t established the proper prior relationships, and paid your bribe through the appropriate established channels, in which case it’s not just ok but encouraged. Whereas in Mexico you… Read more »

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
1 hour ago

True. We combine Soviet-style ideological restrictions with South America-style corruption. What’s more, we layer an ethnic mob running the show behind the scenes with the intent to bring my people to its knees.

What could go wrong.

Jack Dodsen
Jack Dodsen
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
1 hour ago

Yeah, that’s pretty much the distinction between totalitarian and authoritarian. Ideological requirements are placed on blatant bribery along with everything else in the former. Without getting into the weeds, it explains why totalitarian systems murder infinitely more people than fascist ones. The “total” part is key.

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  Jack Dodsen
57 minutes ago

Great description. But the ideological requirements will be difficult to impose on non-whites. They simply don’t care nor are they bright enough to follow the ideological rules, which, admittedly change all the time. Indians are smart enough to follow those rules but have zero respect for them so will disregard them whenever possible. It’s why it’s so hard to impose ideological rule in non-white, non-Asian countries. They simply won’t stick to the rules. They can’t stick to the rules. In the US, those ideological restraints are only really imposed on whites. Occasionally, they are imposed on the token blacks and… Read more »

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
1 hour ago

Citizen-

I think there is a small sliver of early Xers that will pass into retirement with the Boomers.

I also think that the mid and late Xers will largely be passed over. I sat this because the few notable Xers out there are all from the early part of that generation.

KGB
KGB
2 hours ago

And just like clockwork, this weekend saw the release of polls that suddenly showed the low IQ diversity hire, despite one of the worst months in Presidential campaign history, with the wind at her back. It was always going to be like this. The slobber fest over Harris in August, and Trump’s resurgence in the fall were always just opening acts. All they were concerned about was entering this week with the one thing that makes an election steal possible: plausibility. And now they have it. Even though the polls in question were horribly constructed and worthless, you will no… Read more »

Marko
Marko
Reply to  KGB
2 hours ago

Yeah, the local morning news was carelessly talking about “polls show Harris in the lead 49 to 46 percent”…but what polls though? Polls aren’t an irregular plural noun like “shrimp”.

“Shrimp may contain food-borne illness, say scientists.”

mikew
mikew
Reply to  KGB
1 hour ago

Real Clear Polling has Trump up by about a percent in battleground states. Harris up by 0.1 nationally. Who knows? The final RCP wrapup in 2020 had Biden winning nationally by 7 but the actual number was 4.5. And when it comes down to it, a 2020 swing of 40,000 votes in battleground states would have given Trump an EC victory. The cheating and rigging wasn’t wide spread and it didnt have to be. Probably the same today and we will have this embarrassingly stupid women to listen to for at least 4 years.

Hokkoda
Member
Reply to  mikew
30 minutes ago

The story so far appears to be Democrats staying home. Early voting is way down for them in key states. Ballot box stuffing at a certain level depends on a foundation of legitimate votes.

But as Z points out, if you believe voting is way down, I have some murder, crime, inflation, and jobs stats for you, lol.

A lot of people are now counting on Republicans to show up big today. Maybe get Trump above the fraud margin. I don’t know. I just don’t know.

its not like one election is going to stop the shipwreck.

compsci
compsci
Reply to  KGB
42 minutes ago

I understand and am sympathetic to all your concerns. However, be of good cheer ya men of the DR. A steal of the election would be even more blatant than the former steal in 2020. Such events wake up the populous–those who can be awakened anyway.

Trump can not right the ship in 4 years, he can only serve to delay the inevitable and make it more painful in the end. When the platform of one or more parties in a future election actually start to talk about ignored problems and painful solutions will there be hope for real change.

Maniac
Maniac
1 hour ago

Contact your doctor if you experience an election that lasts longer than four days.

pyrrhus
pyrrhus
Reply to  Maniac
1 hour ago

The doctor will tell you to take two aspirin and call him in a week…

KGB
KGB
Reply to  pyrrhus
1 hour ago

Or take a safe and effective election fortification.

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
Reply to  Maniac
1 hour ago

“Electile dysfunction”.

Xman
Xman
Reply to  Maniac
1 hour ago

The doctor will tell you that President Kamala wants you double-vaxxed and masked… and then she’ll preform the abortion and the gender reassignment.

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Maniac
56 minutes ago

the cure is a blood letting

Marko
Marko
Reply to  Maniac
18 minutes ago

I experience painful elections every few years. I should see a doctor.

Neoliberal Feudalism
37 minutes ago

Here’s my California voting experience: https://substack.com/@neofeudalism/note/c-75488755

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
1 hour ago

This election feels like the Battle of the Bulge in WWII when Team G mustered everything they had and threw it against the wall in desperation.

Some initial successes, but the end was never in doubt.

Forlorn hopes are tragic for a reason.

I can’t believe this election is even close. But the convergence of managerialism, population replacement, ideological court packing, and media dominance has reached a tipping point.

Hope T wins. Hope they try. But some forces are larger than mere men.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  ProZNoV
55 minutes ago

Speaking of forces, look at this short clip of the demon-possesed lunatics on the other side:

https://x.com/realDailyWire/status/1853081956004581696/

These creatures are telling us exactly what they plan to do to any that oppose their evil, insane agenda.

george 1
george 1
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
32 minutes ago

Much of the population in America today is insane/deranged. As they stated in their video they believe anyone who is a Trump supporter is a traitor and their enemy. Since that is the case they will not have a problem kinetically dealing them. All that is needed is the right officials in place to start the party.

You can now see this in Israel where about 80% of the population supports ethnically cleansing Gaza to include killing them all if needed.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
1 hour ago

A long time ago, in a foreign country, I was chatting with an acquaintance who was a citizen thereof. Being a much more naive civnat back then, I said something about the lack of corruption in the USA relative to most of the rest of the world. I still remember the guffaw and incredulity of the fellow. One of those moments that stays with you. He pointed out that they had institutionalized the corruption and called it campaign contributions, and of course I had no rebuttal because he was correct. Of course nowadays they don’t even bother policing those “contributions”… Read more »

ChrisZ
ChrisZ
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
1 hour ago

MartyrMade had an insightful “tweet” about the ongoing genocide in Gaza, to the effect that the Israeli government’s position was NOT, “Because of Oct. 7, we HAVE to do this,” but rather: “Because of Oct. 7, we GET to do this.” That formulation could apply to a lot to situations, and it’s a special favorite of the left—as your smart comment about them turning every opponent into “Hitler” shows. The position they bully society into holding is that against a Hitler, restraint is not a virtue, and it may even be immoral. Any atrocity would be justified—and will eventually be… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
27 minutes ago

What are we supposed to do with these folks? Well, there is no living with them, although plenty here apparently still try (old friends, insane relatives). No, they won’t stop their insanity – ever. You can move away, but they will follow – or send in a few thousand Venezuelans or Haitians or Mauritanians. Even if AINO were to break up along racial and ideological lines, you’d be facing endless economic and military conflict with the left – as in the Covington books (boycotts, trade embargoes, militarized border, espionage incursions, etc.). Which is why I’ve repeatedly stated my belief that… Read more »

usNthem
usNthem
2 hours ago

It probably all just needs to be burned to the ground and start fresh with sane normalcy. Here’s hoping the Trumpster runs the table and libs*** heads everywhere explode like fireworks on the 4th of July…

pyrrhus
pyrrhus
Reply to  usNthem
1 hour ago

In the end, it will be…It’s rare for a decadent country to fix itself…

mmack
mmack
2 hours ago

 It is just assumed, as it was in the Cold War, that Western countries are largely free of corruption, mostly due to the honesty of Americans

As a former inhabitant of the Chicagoland area in Silly-nois, THAT made me laugh out loud.

Thanks Z.

Maxda
Maxda
Reply to  mmack
2 hours ago

Growing up in Massachusetts, it was assumed the city Mics and Negroes were corrupt as hell, but the Wasps were clean.

Maxda
Maxda
2 hours ago

Only homogeneous Christian countries like northern Europe, the U.S., and Canada used to be were ever high-trust / low corruption naturally. Other places need a monarch or strong-man executing crooked officials to keep corruption down.

pyrrhus
pyrrhus
Reply to  Maxda
1 hour ago

Yes…but when Xi came to power, after narrowly surviving the Red Guards earlier in life, he almost immediately had 100,000 CCP officials arrested for corruption..and Chinese jails and prison camps don’t resemble Club Fed…Trump needs to consider that possibility…

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
1 hour ago

Went to vote this morning. We have town council elections which actually matter and aren’t rigged. And, yes, I did vote for Trump even though I know that he won’t “drain the swamp” or pretty much anything else other than being more pro-Israel than AIPAC. But he’s a one of a kind. My presidential vote was my goodbye wave to our past. Anyway, looking at how the women, liberal-looking men and the very few minorities far outnumbered normal-looking men, you can see how there’s no hope for democracy. (And this is in a very white, fairly conservative town.) Everyone there… Read more »

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
1 hour ago

The normal looking men are probably at work

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
53 minutes ago

True, but the fact that a majority of voters are women and non-white shows that democracy is and aways destined to fail. It’s stunning that anyone thought otherwise.

Jack Dodsen
Jack Dodsen
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
55 minutes ago

My presidential vote was my goodbye wave to our past

Nicely phrased. While it had been true for a very long time, I came to peace with the reality that the United States was officially hot garbage the day after the 2020 “election.” The stupidity and blatant ham-handedness of that affair pretty well served as a tombstone finally delivered to the gravesite after a family member finally scratched up the jack a generation or more after the death.

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  Jack Dodsen
5 minutes ago

Going to the voting station reminded me of going to see an old relative at the hospital one last time. I know that voting doesn’t matter, but the old guy deserves one last shake of the hand, and voting for Trump is a good way to do that.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
52 minutes ago

My presidential vote was my goodbye wave to our past.

That was beautiful.

Material like this is why this is the best comment section on the Internet.

compsci
compsci
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
23 minutes ago

“…looking at how the women, liberal-looking men and the very few minorities far outnumbered normal-looking men, you can see how there’s no hope for democracy.” Depends how you define “democracy”. If it’s along the line…”everyone who fogs a mirror has a vote”, then no, democracy has no future. This I agree with. On the other hand, the inventors of “democracy”–the ancient Athenians–had no such illusions. They wished to avoid the worst form of governance–Tyranny–but were under no illusion as to the ability of the average member of the Vox populi to decide societal matters. The problem is getting there from… Read more »

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  compsci
8 minutes ago

The problem is that there’s a natural push in any limited democracy to expand the vote.

Basically, there is no perfect system. Saying that democracy where the vote is limited to productive members of society is best is like saying that fall should be the only season of the year in Maine. Nature isn’t going to allow that.

Stephen Dowling Botts, Dec'd
Stephen Dowling Botts, Dec'd
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
15 minutes ago

The Covid lock downs convinced me that I was living in Airstrip One. Contributing factors were Waco and a populace who elected ‘the first black president’– who isn’t black.

Jack Dodsen
Jack Dodsen
1 hour ago

Depressing and spot on. Neither side will believe the results from tonight. Trump supporters will rightfully think they either were cheated or won by a larger margin. Regime supporters (you are correct that Harris is a mere generic brand albeit a quite stupid one) have been led to believe if they lose it is due to Russians and/or dark, odious domestic forces. Political scientists have long correlated a corrupt judicial system with what amounts to dictatorship. We are there even if that broad definition is oversimplified. The best takes on the legal situation come from Mark Steyn, a former Normiecon… Read more »

Jack Dodsen
Jack Dodsen
Reply to  Jack Dodsen
1 hour ago

An older Canadian lady was my bartender at a hotel in the Far East. She told me that she had lived and worked in the States and Mexico, and at least in the latter they knew their government was a corrupt dictatorship. It didn’t offend me but I mentally blew it off as standard shitlib stuff, which it kind of was. It stuck with me, though, and over time I realized the bartender was right. That’s been a long time ago and truer now than then, but it was true then, too.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Jack Dodsen
1 hour ago

The state funding of regime media is often done through a laundering process. Have you noticed Raytheon and Lockheed Martin advertising on TV? What on earth for? Their products are not for sale to the public. They don’t even mention any of their products in their ads. They are a regime client, they do not need to advertise on tv. What, were you going to go out and buy an F35 or a Patriot missile battery after watching their commercial that does nothing but brag about how diverse they are? They aren’t even trying to sell you anything with their… Read more »

Evil Sandmich
Evil Sandmich
Reply to  Jack Dodsen
1 hour ago

I dunno, my impression is that no one really thinks that Trump lost the vote in 2020. There was a very brief effort to cast him as a sore loser. It went nowhere and slightly smarter heads figured they shouldn’t be bringing that up anyway. This as opposed to Hillary who sulked from losing due to some foreign scheme, a line she didn’t even believe as she never even made noise about running again.

Jack Dodsen
Jack Dodsen
Reply to  Evil Sandmich
4 minutes ago

Leftists believe what they are told, though, and thinking plays no role with most of them (conservatards are even worse).

B125
B125
2 hours ago

I hope Trump wins like Z predicted, but I fear the Dems are just going to rig everything

Gideon
Gideon
1 hour ago

Like history, the third world has become a bugaboo used by our betters to bully us into acceding to their bad governance. Anyone who has been to a so-called third world country will know how bad the comparisons are. Visiting Russia for the first time, Tucker Carlson was shocked at what a nice place Moscow was. Duh, the Cold War ended decades ago. Soviet films on YouTube might even call into question a few of our assumptions about life under communism (post-Stalin anyway). If the worst political system could somehow permit the survival of the Russian people and their culture,… Read more »

Zaphod
Zaphod
2 hours ago

The Trump – Parnell parallel alluded to is a good one. The perfect is the enemy of the good. You work with the best option you have. Otherwise ample time for regrets later.

Galway Lurker
Galway Lurker
Reply to  Zaphod
50 minutes ago

Now we just need Z to finish the Joycean exegesis on politics that he has been promising for years…

Marko
Marko
2 hours ago

Trump even dances like Boris Yeltsin

Hi-ya!
Hi-ya!
Reply to  Marko
1 hour ago

and got the same amount of sleep. Yeltsin slept 3 -4 hours. He also had part of his hand blown off playing with a grenade when he was a boy!

I think tanks were blowing out state offices at one point after the fall of the ussr

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Hi-ya!
54 minutes ago

The difference is that Yeltsin was a complete lush while Trump has been sober for decades.

Jack Boniface
Jack Boniface
Member
59 minutes ago

If what we see in present day America was happening in a South American country” — we would invade it.

Fred Beans
Fred Beans
1 hour ago

I remember seeing in the 90’s articles in the MSM about how Mexico had implemented a high integrity election system that the U.S. Secret Service had created for them. Including a picture of Mexicans proudly holding up their new “tamper-proof” ID cards! I later read the SS had done the same for Spain. But I’ll be damned if I can find any info about it online these days…

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
1 hour ago

Who actually votes on “Election Day” anymore?

Utah at roughly 48% total ballots submitted pre-election day.

My early voting day was mostly women (no kids); presumably concerned about their sacrament of abortion.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  ProZNoV
1 hour ago

No early voting in my state. People call us backwards.

ray
ray
42 minutes ago

I’ve lived in a ‘third world’ country almost a decade. Left Amerika because its justice system was co-opted by feminists and what we used to call political correctness. Could no longer rely on defending myself and got tired of being a target. The presidential elections in my adopted country are far more valid than the thoroughly corrupt and evil U.S. The corruption in this nation tends to be petty and monetary . . . fairly typical by world standards. In the U.S., the corruption is a potent mix of Progressive totalitarianism and selfishness (moneygrubbing etc.) It’s harder to live here… Read more »

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
51 minutes ago

I unsarcastically admire Z for being able to pen a long relevant essay on corruption. Which yes is totally out of control. We all know money and blackmail talk in DC. But my mood is simply “let’s get get this on, spin the wheel and see what happens tonight”

compsci
compsci
52 minutes ago

“Trump may be our Boris Yeltsin, a flawed but essential figure to facilitate the transition from the low-trust ideological regime of the past into something human and honest.”

Waay ahead of you Z-man. Who will be our Putin–and a Putin is what it’s gonna take! Putin has been running the show for how long…25 or so years in one form or another?

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  compsci
47 minutes ago

The thing about Putin is nobody would have guessed that he would have become Putin. He was just another spook apparatchik.

compsci
compsci
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
12 minutes ago

Yes, the Russians “lucked out”. Putin is in the finally analysis a true patriot of the Russian people and culture. And I really don’t care if the guy has stolen billions of rubles in the process. If you can vote for Trump, you need not complain about Putin. The last perfect man was killed 2,000 years ago. I also note he is a race realist and favors Whites. I have recently read that by executive order he has opened Russia to relaxed immigration–from White countries only! That includes the White West currently aligned against him. Yep, even citizens from the… Read more »

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
12 minutes ago

Good point. I think he was pushed into the role. With honest and fair treatment he would have been Washington s friend. They made him their enemy, not the other way around

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
2 hours ago

seems like politicizing the military – like the dems have – increases the likelihood of a pinochet like figure taking control.

Jack Dodsen
Jack Dodsen
Reply to  karl von hungus
1 hour ago

Yeah, that’s fraught for them. Of course they didn’t think that part through. If the MIC gibs and grift were to be threatened, matters would reach a head toot suite.

Hemid
Hemid
Reply to  karl von hungus
1 hour ago

If we don’t assume a Pinochet means “our kind of guy,” we might recognize that this already happened.

Who during Biden’s term has been president?

We’ve increasingly taken to talking about emergent phenomena, schools of fish, etc., but command decisions—combat deployments, foreign and domestic—are in fact being made and obeyed. The military occupation of D.C. was televised.

A crime is not solved by saying nobody did it.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  karl von hungus
42 minutes ago

Our deep state certainly could, and may even prefer to pivot to an Algeria type model.

That would involve about a dozen generals running things in conjunction with the intelligence agencies.

For society, most would get just enough crumbs from the table to subsist without too much grumbling.

The thing is that, in Algeria, the level of technological penetration is so low that they are limited to being paternalistically authoritarian.

Our deep state Karens want full totalitarianism, which means micromanaging every aspect of everyone’s life forever.

Last edited 22 minutes ago by The Wild Geese Howard
Mycale
Mycale
4 minutes ago

The USA is in many ways worse than many third world countries, especially in the cities. Given the choice, I’d rather live in Mexico City than San Francisco or Los Angeles. At least in Mexico City the government knows where its bread is buttered. They don’t have the insane anarcho-tyranny that we are all suffering under. Do people know how bad it has gotten? I think on some level they do, but I am also tired of reading boomer-tier stuff like “durrr those libtards in NYC get what they voted for.” The fact that our cities are in such shabby… Read more »

Last edited 2 minutes ago by Mycale
Jannie
Jannie
57 minutes ago

Biggest reason to allow a Trump win is the (neocon) hope that he can sell a broader Iran/Russia war to young Whyte Bois.

Christian Schulzke
Christian Schulzke
6 minutes ago

Regardless of what happens, and I assume the cheating will be at least as bad as last time, it will be good to see Trump move into the rearview mirror, either soon or in 4 years from now. People need to recognize America as they understood it doesn’t exist anymore, and we need to move beyond solutions that envision “saving the system” or imagining a white knight will ride in and save it for us. We need to get to the “well, its broken and there is no fixing it, so what now” stage.

TomA
TomA
48 minutes ago

Cynicism is a waste of mental energy and solves nothing. Better is to withdraw into your own thoughts and focus your mental exertion on a remedy to what ails and afflicts us. The pathogens have invaded the host, but they are few in number relative to the public body. As an individual, you cannot put a dent in our macro-problems, but you can do something about a single pathogen, and that’s a start. Think outside the box. Wear the fog. Use the element of novelty and surprise. WTF just happened? That is how we win.

trackback
2 hours ago

[…] ZMan is delightfully dyspeptic today. […]

Greg Nikolic
1 hour ago

If a corrupt place wishes to become less corrupt, it’s culture must change to include abstract notions like personal integrity. Culture is the key to it all. The Japanese are not corrupt because their culture includes the notion of personal honor. For example, they would never sell a car by industry to government that wasn’t top notch. By comparison, the U.S. military is legendary for its cost overruns and general financial abuse. The only way this will ever change is if men’s thinking changes.

— Greg (my blog: http://www.dark.sport.blog)

Evil Sandmich
Evil Sandmich
Reply to  Greg Nikolic
1 hour ago

The Japanese are not corrupt

That’s rather wishful. They’re just very efficient with their corruption; it’s an official part of the system.

Blasphemous
Blasphemous
2 hours ago

“Trump may be our Boris Yeltsin, a flawed but essential figure to facilitate the transition from the low-trust ideological regime of the past into something human and honest.”

When Trump #2 fails to do anything about the immigration crisis, and starts a war with Iran on behalf of Israel, does that increase or decrease social trust?

Blasphemous
Blasphemous
Reply to  thezman
1 hour ago

Ah yes the guy who spent years talking about “We are not voting our way out of this”.

Now the election is here and it’s time to get back on the grift wagon, otherwise his pro-Trump audience won’t “buy him a coffee”

Being a “dissent” is always finding some excuse to never learn from past mistakes and come hovering back around to be a GOP loyalist.

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  Blasphemous
1 hour ago

I missed the part where Z advocated voting for Con, Inc. He might have mentioned voting for Trump, not because anyone thinks Trump will do anything but he’s a one of a kind who has taken being literally shot at and keeps coming back. That’s worth something.

Regardless, even if someone here votes for Trump for reasons besides politics, they’ll have no need to ever vote for state or national office again.

Templar
Templar
Reply to  Blasphemous
11 minutes ago

And when, not if, Israel ceases to be a country of significance, you’ll have to find someone else to feed you shit. Seriously, fuck off dude, with the nihilism I mean. You fucksticks never bring anything to the table other than carrying water for Jews (under the guise of “pointing out the Jew”), and what’s worse that while no one reasonably expects you to provide solutions to anything you dipshits actively go out of your way to deplete any inroads and discussions to solutions. Just. Fuck. Off. And. Disappear.

Jack Dodsen
Jack Dodsen
Reply to  thezman
1 hour ago

You know these types never will do that.

pyrrhus
pyrrhus
Reply to  Blasphemous
1 hour ago

As we used to say on the playground, quitters never win and winners never quit…